Over the weekend, the Obama administration declared that Healthcare.gov is working fine and it has met its December 1 deadline to get the site fixed. Insurance companies beg to differ over the definitions of “working” and “fine.” White House pitchman Jay Carney probably just wishes he could wake up from the nightmare of having to answer question about why that website doesn’t work every single day.
Today, ABC’s Jon Karl asked Carney if, after the White House’s declarations of victory, is it “Mission Accomplished.” Carney danced.
KARL: “In terms of the goal that you set for this moment, in terms of the website being functional for the vast majority of users, is it Mission Accomplished?”
CARNEY: “Well as I was saying, Jon, we were working very hard to make the necessary fixes to improve the website so that by December 1st, it would function effectively for the vast majority of users. The metrics we use to measure that have to do with response time, and stability of the site, and the error rate. And I know that Jeff and others who do the CMS briefings have gone into those metrics. And, you know, we believe we made the important progress that we set out to make by November 30th. But as we said in November, and I’ve said just now, the work continues to make improvements that still need to be made to the website, and the focus here is not on — the end game here isn’t the best possible and most effective website that we can build, but a system by which all those millions of Americans who are clearly interested in enrolling and purchasing quality, affordable health insurance, are able to do so. So that’s our goal and that work continues today. We have passed an important milestone in that effort, but you know, the work continues.”
KARL: “Well let me just try to crystallize that down because you — we tried to pin you down on what the vast majority means, you guys didn’t want to quantify it, I just — very clearly, in terms of the goal you set for this moment in time, is it Mission Accomplished? Have you accomplished that goal?”
CARNEY: “Using that phrase is not one I would employ.
And from there, Carney went on to blather about how it’s more functional for more people than it was before.
One of the side effects of having government essentially seize one-sixth of the economy through fiat, aka Obamacare, is that it has reduced the likes of Carney and the president to taking on the role of “Here’s how to order!” pitchmen. In the quote above, Carney goes on infomercial-style about how Obamacare lets people buy “quality, affordable healthcare,” in full knowledge that what Obamacare is mandating is in many cases not affordable, and is in many cases of lesser quality than that was available before. If he was in private business, Carney could be keelhauled by the Federal Trade Commission for false claims in advertising. Being in government shouldn’t be a Get Out Of Jail Free card, but in Obama’s America, it is.
Earlier: Zombie on ‘Mission Accomplished.gov.’
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